Alwaght- While the Kabul-Islamabad relations were expected to witness a boost after the Taliban took the power in Afghanistan, a year and a half after the formation of the interim government by the group, political and security tensions remain overshadowing the two sides’ relations. Driven by this, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif visited Kabul by surprise and met with Taliban’s Acting First Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Abdul Ghani stressed that the economic issues should not be tied to political issues and called for release of Afghanistan citizens in Pakistani prisons. He also emphasized boost to economic and trade ties between the two countries and demanded facilitation of movement of travelers from Torkham and Spin Buldak border crossings, especially for those seeking health care.
The ministry of foreign affairs of Pakistan issued a statement saying that in this meeting issues related to the growing threat of terrorism in the region, especially Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and ISIS-Khorasan, were discussed and the two sides agreed that in order to effectively deal with these threats, there should be constructive cooperation between various institutions.
This is the first visit of Pakistan’s defense minister and director of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) General Nadeem Ahmed Anjam to Afghanistan after the return of the Taliban to power in August 2021. The visit followed fierce clashes between the Taliban and the Pakistani border guards on Sunday, which resulted in the deaths and injuries in the ranks of the two sides. In response to the incident, the Taliban closed the Torkham crossing between the two countries and announced that this border gate was blocked after complaints about non-compliance by Pakistan. Islamabad authorities called for its reopening. Pakistan is strongly unhappy with approach of the Taliban government in controlling the shared borders and accuses it of not cooperating in countering terrorism and dealing with anti-Pakistani elements.
Clashes between security forces of the two countries sometimes lead to closure of Wesh-Chaman border crossing, their second major border crossing. Over the past months, their forces clashed several times on the border, something inflaming tensions between the Taliban and Islamabad. That is why the Pakistani officials are trying to defuse these tensions by bolstering bilateral relations and security cooperation. With Afghanistan and Pakistan suffering economically at present, the continuation of border conflicts can deepen their crises and this issue is not in the interest of any of the sides. Ever since the Taliban rose to power in Afghanistan, concerns about the spillover of instability from this country to the region have increased, and Pakistan is most concerned about this issue and is trying to prevent the spread of insecurity to its borders.
Countering TTP
In addition to border skirmishes, the Pakistani defense minister’s trip to Kabul was driven by another issue: Threats posed by Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan that has dealt heavy blows to Pakistan in the past two decades. The latest terrorist attack by the group was on January 30 at a mosque in Peshawar, killing and injuring tens of Pakistanis.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Taliban of harboring TTP and demanded an end to this support, but the interim government of Kabul has denied these accusations, claiming that no terrorist group is currently present and active in Afghanistan, and to show that it has no connection to Pakistan attack, it condemned the terrorist operation in Peshawar.
Although the grade of contacts of the Taliban to TTP is unclear, after its assumption of power, the Taliban released a number of the group’s leaders from Afghanistan prisons. Pakistan considers the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan as a threat to its security and expected containing of the terrorist groups after Taliban took the rule in Afghanistan. But this in practice did not happen, and even because of the support of the Taliban, TTP gained more power on the borders. The return of the Taliban to power injected new motivation into the group to continue its fight against Pakistan for its dream of forming an Islamic Emirate.
A visit to defuse political tensions
The visit of Pakistani officials to Kabul comes a few days after Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Munich Security Conference openly said that use of Afghanistan soil by militants can pose a threat to Pakistan and warned that if the Taliban have no determination and capacity to deter them, terrorism will spill over to areas beyond Pakistan. Zardari said that the Taliban have no proper regular army, anti-terror forces, and border guards and this poses a threat to regional countries. Zardari called for the interim government in Kabul to cooperate to address these challenges. Taliban officials denied this claim and asked Islamabad to discuss the security issue with them privately. They also emphasized that Afghanistan’s security is currently better than most countries in the world and asked Islamabad to end these tension-generating statements.
To shore up its relations with the Taliban’s interim government, Pakistan upscaled its business ties to Afghanistan over the past year for the good of easing the country’s economic challenges. According to reports published by the UN, 90 percent of Afghans are under the poverty line and if international aids are not sent to them, a new crisis is inevitable to the world. The continuation of the economic crisis may compound the migration crisis, and this is a serious threat to the regional countries, especially Pakistan, which is incapable of hosting Afghans due to its home challenges. After the Taliban rise to power, Islamabad sent back home thousands of Afghans.
Carrying the US message to the Taliban
Pakistan’s officials appear to have carried a message from the US whose representatives visited Islamabad last week. With its influence cut in Afghanistan developments after withdrawal, the US is seeking implementation of its plans on the strength of Pakistan. Washington, obviously the main culprit of the insecurity and economic crisis in Afghanistan and blocking in its banks more than $7 billion of the country’s assets under political excuses, blames the Taliban interim government as the cause of this state of disorder. Recently, the American officials have claimed that the Taliban is planning to transfer one of the famous terrorists to Central Asia to destabilize the region, a claim the Taliban denied. With such claims, Washington is trying to build international pressure on the interim government and escape criticism.
On the other hand, Pakistan, which has been a powerful backer of the Taliban over the past two decades, does not find the group’s infighting in its interest. Given the recent weeks’ reports of differences among the Taliban leaders, Islamabad is seeking a mediation for unity among them. In September 2021 and shortly after Kabul fall, reports emerged to talk about Taliban leaders’ infighting. At the time, ISI chief visited Kabul and defused their differences. With some Taliban-affiliated groups being on the Western terror lists, more serious differences can lead to political insecurity and this is worrisome to Pakistan. Despite the fact that the Taliban has shown it is not as obedient as the past to Pakistan, there are still some people loyal to Islamabad in the interim government.
